- Paperback: 248 pages
- Publisher: Pretend Genius Press (1 April 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0977852628
- ISBN-13: 978-0977852628
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 12.7 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,065,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The best of the international Willesden short story prize with writing from Britain, India, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand and the US. A feast of new short stories from these award-winning and brilliant writers: Willie Davis, Steve Finbow, James Lawless, Lee Joans, Nicholas Hogg, Wes Lee, Vanessa Gebbie, Jonathan Attrill, Laura Solomon, Shakti Bhatt, Laura Heggie, Olesya Mishechkina, Arthur Allan (in order of appearance). Underground classics: read these on the tube/subway/metro and look cool while missing your stop.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Promoted by publisher Pretend Genius Press as "underground classics: read these on the tube/subway/metro and look cool while missing your stop", New Short Stories 1 is a collection of thirteen mainstream stories selected as prize winners in the Willesden Herald's International Short Story Prize 2007. This POD book is handsomely presented with a moody cover by Stratos Fountoulis, and its production standards are generally high, although some stories betray evidence of less-than-perfect editing.
The Willesden Herald is based in north London, and stories from writers with a connection to the British Isles predominate. The stories vary in quality from the excellent "Kid in a Well" by American Willie Davis, in which a reformed alcoholic struggles to divert his former drinking pals' attention from television coverage of the eponymous victim to himself, to "Charles Magezi-Akiiki/Daphne Darling" by Olesya Mishechkina, a story in which obscure and often inaccurate word choices detract from the reading experience. It's set in a store.
Nicholas Hogg's "Paradise" starts promisingly as an honest look at the life of a Kenyan woman who becomes a pool hustler cum prostitute after being left destitute because of the death of her unfaithful husband from AIDS. The writing is nicely understated but pulls no punches. Mercy Lang's viewpoint is told in third person, but we also get first person contributions from her two children, whom she inadvertently abandons to live on the streets while searching for a better life in Germany. Unfortunately, the story then proceeds to require two suspensions of disbelief that were beyond my capacity. If you can swallow the first one, which involves ignoring some harsh facts, you'll probably have no difficulty with the second, but I couldn't manage either. A shame, as prostitution seems to be a subject many writers cannot approach without a rose-tinted glow.
Wes Lee's "The Dead Don't Do That Kind of Thing" is a wry look at grief, whereas Laura Heggie's "Avoiding the Issue", after an incomprehensible start, seems to be attempting to find humour in the protagonist's attempts to avoid being bothered by the homeless. A miss for me. Fans of Marilyn Monroe may enjoy Lee Joans' "Vaselino", although I found I didn't have enough knowledge of the background to fill in the gaps in the narrative.
Overall, a competent compilation with generally decent reading, and stand-out stories in "Kid in a Well" and Arthur Allan's blackly comic all-at-sea tale "Atlantic Drift".
The Willesden Herald is based in north London, and stories from writers with a connection to the British Isles predominate. The stories vary in quality from the excellent "Kid in a Well" by American Willie Davis, in which a reformed alcoholic struggles to divert his former drinking pals' attention from television coverage of the eponymous victim to himself, to "Charles Magezi-Akiiki/Daphne Darling" by Olesya Mishechkina, a story in which obscure and often inaccurate word choices detract from the reading experience. It's set in a store.
Nicholas Hogg's "Paradise" starts promisingly as an honest look at the life of a Kenyan woman who becomes a pool hustler cum prostitute after being left destitute because of the death of her unfaithful husband from AIDS. The writing is nicely understated but pulls no punches. Mercy Lang's viewpoint is told in third person, but we also get first person contributions from her two children, whom she inadvertently abandons to live on the streets while searching for a better life in Germany. Unfortunately, the story then proceeds to require two suspensions of disbelief that were beyond my capacity. If you can swallow the first one, which involves ignoring some harsh facts, you'll probably have no difficulty with the second, but I couldn't manage either. A shame, as prostitution seems to be a subject many writers cannot approach without a rose-tinted glow.
Wes Lee's "The Dead Don't Do That Kind of Thing" is a wry look at grief, whereas Laura Heggie's "Avoiding the Issue", after an incomprehensible start, seems to be attempting to find humour in the protagonist's attempts to avoid being bothered by the homeless. A miss for me. Fans of Marilyn Monroe may enjoy Lee Joans' "Vaselino", although I found I didn't have enough knowledge of the background to fill in the gaps in the narrative.
Overall, a competent compilation with generally decent reading, and stand-out stories in "Kid in a Well" and Arthur Allan's blackly comic all-at-sea tale "Atlantic Drift".
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Don't listen to that previous review. Olesya Misheschkina's piece is avant-garde and likely to disrupt some people's cosy expectations. Twenty.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
This collection is up there with the very best
19 Mar 2009
Format:Paperback
Don't listen to the piffle in that previous review. This is an inspirational collection, far in advance of most if not all other short story anthologies of its kind. If there is any flaw in the editing it must be very slight indeed. Olesya Misheschkina's piece is avant-garde and is likely to disrupt some people's cosy expectations, especially if their usual fare is sci-fi schlock (see "GUD magazine" referred to above.)
a competent compilation with generally decent reading and a few stand-out stories
24 July 2007
Format:Paperback
Promoted by publisher Pretend Genius Press as "underground classics: read these on the tube/subway/metro and look cool while missing your stop", New Short Stories 1 is a collection of thirteen mainstream stories selected as prize winners in the Willesden Herald's International Short Story Prize 2007. This POD book is handsomely presented with a moody cover by Stratos Fountoulis, and its production standards are generally high, although some stories betray evidence of less-than-perfect editing.
The Willesden Herald is based in north London, and stories from writers with a connection to the British Isles predominate. The stories vary in quality from the excellent "Kid in a Well" by American Willie Davis, in which a reformed alcoholic struggles to divert his former drinking pals' attention from television coverage of the eponymous victim to himself, to "Charles Magezi-Akiiki/Daphne Darling" by Olesya Mishechkina, a story in which obscure and often inaccurate word choices detract from the reading experience. It's set in a store.
Nicholas Hogg's "Paradise" starts promisingly as an honest look at the life of a Kenyan woman who becomes a pool hustler cum prostitute after being left destitute because of the death of her unfaithful husband from AIDS. The writing is nicely understated but pulls no punches. Mercy Lang's viewpoint is told in third person, but we also get first person contributions from her two children, whom she inadvertently abandons to live on the streets while searching for a better life in Germany. Unfortunately, the story then proceeds to require two suspensions of disbelief that were beyond my capacity. If you can swallow the first one, which involves ignoring some harsh facts, you'll probably have no difficulty with the second, but I couldn't manage either. A shame, as prostitution seems to be a subject many writers cannot approach without a rose-tinted glow.
Wes Lee's "The Dead Don't Do That Kind of Thing" is a wry look at grief, whereas Laura Heggie's "Avoiding the Issue", after an incomprehensible start, seems to be attempting to find humour in the protagonist's attempts to avoid being bothered by the homeless. A miss for me. Fans of Marilyn Monroe may enjoy Lee Joans' "Vaselino", although I found I didn't have enough knowledge of the background to fill in the gaps in the narrative.
Overall, a competent compilation with generally decent reading, and stand-out stories in "Kid in a Well" and Arthur Allan's blackly comic all-at-sea tale "Atlantic Drift".
[Reviewed by Debbie Moorhouse]
The Willesden Herald is based in north London, and stories from writers with a connection to the British Isles predominate. The stories vary in quality from the excellent "Kid in a Well" by American Willie Davis, in which a reformed alcoholic struggles to divert his former drinking pals' attention from television coverage of the eponymous victim to himself, to "Charles Magezi-Akiiki/Daphne Darling" by Olesya Mishechkina, a story in which obscure and often inaccurate word choices detract from the reading experience. It's set in a store.
Nicholas Hogg's "Paradise" starts promisingly as an honest look at the life of a Kenyan woman who becomes a pool hustler cum prostitute after being left destitute because of the death of her unfaithful husband from AIDS. The writing is nicely understated but pulls no punches. Mercy Lang's viewpoint is told in third person, but we also get first person contributions from her two children, whom she inadvertently abandons to live on the streets while searching for a better life in Germany. Unfortunately, the story then proceeds to require two suspensions of disbelief that were beyond my capacity. If you can swallow the first one, which involves ignoring some harsh facts, you'll probably have no difficulty with the second, but I couldn't manage either. A shame, as prostitution seems to be a subject many writers cannot approach without a rose-tinted glow.
Wes Lee's "The Dead Don't Do That Kind of Thing" is a wry look at grief, whereas Laura Heggie's "Avoiding the Issue", after an incomprehensible start, seems to be attempting to find humour in the protagonist's attempts to avoid being bothered by the homeless. A miss for me. Fans of Marilyn Monroe may enjoy Lee Joans' "Vaselino", although I found I didn't have enough knowledge of the background to fill in the gaps in the narrative.
Overall, a competent compilation with generally decent reading, and stand-out stories in "Kid in a Well" and Arthur Allan's blackly comic all-at-sea tale "Atlantic Drift".
[Reviewed by Debbie Moorhouse]
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